How to Make Your Business Cards More Creative (19+ Ideas for 2019)

There are too many boring business cards floating around. Too many cards don't say anything about the person's business and are forgettable.

Boring business cards can be death for a business. The whole point of a business card is to remind the recipient of the company and the value it can add to one's life.

Your business card needs to tell the story of you, your brand and your expertise. To tell that story effectively, create unique cards that leave an immediate impression. Your business card should distinguish your brand from the competition, remind people of what you do, and encourage them to reach out to you.

If you want to make your own business cards and need creative business card ideas, here are our best business card design ideas for 2019 with template examples from Envato Elements and other sources around web. They'll show you how to make business cards that help you leave your mark.

How to Make Your Business Cards More Creative (19+ Ideas for 2019)

Here are unique business card ideas to help you create business cards that truly stand out:

1. Plan Your Design

Before you plunge into designing your business card, start by getting all your design assets lined up and ready. Your business card design ideas need to match your overall brand identity.

Do you already have a logo and colour scheme? If not, try this tutorial:

How to Design a New Brand Identity for Your Business

Grace Fussell

23 Aug 2022

You can also find some great logo templates on Envato Elements.

2. Use a Creative Business Card Template

If you want to make your own business cards, starting with a blank sheet of paper isn’t a great idea. It’s much easier to work from a professionally designed template, which you can then customise by adding your own text and designs.

Envato Elements has a huge library of professional business card design ideas to choose from.

For example, check out the Monta Creative Business Card, which gives you an elegant design to work from. It’s fully set up for easy customisation in Adobe Photoshop, so you’ll be able to make it look unique in no time.

Plus, an Envato Elements subscription also gives you access to unlimited downloads from over a million photos, premium fonts, logos, graphics, and other useful design assets. So, you’ll have everything you need to create business cards as well as presentations, website design, and other projects—with everything looking professional and consistent.

Inspiration: Top 10 (On-Tend) Business Card Templates From Envato Elements (Quick Video)

Looking for inspiring business cards with on-trend designs, which you can use to make your next design with? Discover the best creative business cards from Envato Elements in this quick video:

3. Remember the Basic Design Principles

You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to create a good-looking business card. With that said, though, you should still try to brush up on some of the basic principles of design.

That means things like:

laying out a grid
establishing a hierarchy
keeping all the elements neatly aligned
choosing appropriate fonts and font sizes
working with a consistent colour palette

4. Make Creative Use of Limited Space

When you’re designing a business card, you don’t have a huge canvas to work on. Generally, business cards come in just a few standard sizes, such as 55 x 85 mm. They need to be easy to handle and to slip into a wallet, purse, or pocket.

But even within that limited space, you can still be creative in how you use it. Think about how to get across the key information while arranging it in an eye-catching way. Some of the best business card design ideas just make small variations to the traditional format.

5. Don't Forget the Key Information

It’s easy to get so caught up in creative business card layout ideas that you neglect the main purpose of a business card: to present your key information to prospective clients.

So, while the design is very important, don’t forget to pay attention to the text you include and make sure every word counts. These are the typical things to include:

name
company name
job title
address
phone number
website
email
social media links

But don’t feel you've got to follow that list. You may want to leave out your physical address and direct people only to your website, for example. Or you could add extra information, such as a key slogan, which we’ll cover later.

6. Use the Back of the Card

People often leave the back of a business card blank, but you can make creative use of it. Use it for your slogan, an offer, a quirky quote or illustration, or simply to mark out a space for the client to make notes.

Redsquare Creative Business Card Template

Looking for “back of business card” ideas? Check out this business card, which makes excellent use of both the front and back of the card.

7. Try Different Shapes and Sizes

As I mentioned earlier, most business cards come in a standard rectangular format. But that doesn’t have to be the only option. A square business card can work very well, for example.

You could also experiment with size. Don’t go too big, though, unless you've got a particular reason for doing so. If you create something that people can’t fit in their wallet or business card holder, you risk irritating them and/or just having them throw it out. And keep in mind that non-standard sizes and shapes may be more expensive to print.

8. Include a Slogan

What do you do?

This is basically what people want to know when they’re looking at your card, and complex job titles don’t always provide a good answer.

Think of a way to describe what you do in a single sentence. A single short sentence! I know it’s hard, but it’s a great exercise to go through to get clear on your offering. Then include this short, pithy statement on your business card.

9. Catch the Eye

People see so many business cards. If they’re at a conference or networking event, they may return with dozens of them cluttering up their wallet.

To make yours stand out, include something that catches people’s eye. Maybe it’s a funny or intriguing slogan. Maybe it’s a unique design (more ideas on that later). Think about a way to stand out from the crowd.

10. Show Them What You Do

Words are great, but images are better.

Instead of telling people what you do, why not show them? If you make cool graphics, include an example on the card. If you’re a photographer, include your best shot (that’s a great use for the back of the card, by the way!). Use visuals to show people what you do.

11. Ask for Feedback

Most people just print a huge stack of business cards and start handing them out to people. But why not include a little audience participation? Try printing a small number first, as a test run, and see how people respond when you hand them out.

You could even take it further and come up with a couple of different designs that you print off and hand out. Ask people which one they prefer. If you've got an engaged online audience, run a poll asking people to vote on their preferred design and/or leave their comments. You may get some valuable feedback, while leaving your customers feeling more involved and engaged.

12. Experiment With Typography

If you want to create business cards that people will remember, the typography may not be your first thought. But elegant and appropriate typography is a crucial element of a good, memorable design.

What image do you want to convey? Professional? Creative? Reliable? Whimsical? Your choice of typography says a lot about you.

13. Support Your Brand

You may be full of creative business card ideas, but don’t forget that the main point of a business card is to tell people who you are. So, it's got to be consistent with your brand.

Professional and Creative Business Card 02

That means not just matching your brand’s colour scheme and brand identity, but also fitting in with your personality and/or your company’s values. If you’ve built your brand around the idea of being solid and dependable, then you’ll probably want to focus on simple business card design ideas instead of including a lot of bells and whistles. Conversely, if you market yourself as being creative, don’t hand people a boring card.

14. Make It Timeless

There are times when you’ll want to be very current and take advantage of the trends of the moment, but a business card isn’t one of them.

Remember that you’ll probably be printing these cards in large numbers and handing them out over many months or years. Try to avoid passing design fads or pop culture references that may look dated a year from now.

15. When in Doubt, Go Minimalist

If you’re not an expert in design, minimalism can be a great option. There’s less room for error, and it’s easier to create a professional, classic design than it would be if you were trying to throw in lots of different colours and graphics.

A simple, minimalist card design doesn’t have to be boring—it can still be very elegant and memorable.

16. But Don’t Be Afraid to Express Yourself

If you’re more confident in your design skills, or if you’ve found a great template and are happy with customising it, by all means go for complex layouts and bold graphics. If you get it right, this kind of bold design can have a strong impact.

Colourful Creative Business Card Template

If you want to go down this road but aren’t confident doing it in Photoshop, another great option is to use a simple, web-based business card maker. More on that later.

17. Include a Photo

Earlier, I mentioned that photographers might want to include one of their best shots on their business cards. But you don’t have to be a photographer to make good use of a photo.

If you include a simple photo of yourself on your card, it can kill two birds with one stone:

It makes your card more visually interesting.
It instantly reminds people who you are.

Think about that scenario we talked about earlier, with a person returning from a conference with dozens of business cards. Having your photo on your card will help that person recall meeting you, remember the conversation, and hopefully make them want to get in touch.

18. Give People Something Useful

It’s time to face a brutal truth. Most business cards are destined for the trash.

One way to avoid that dismal fate is by giving people something useful, beyond the contact details on your card.

Think about how your card can have a second function, ideally linked to your business or brand. Maybe it could be used as a bookmark, for example, especially if you’ve written a book or sell books.

Or perhaps you could include useful information on the back of your card. If you run a plumbing business, for example, perhaps include phone numbers for other household service providers in addition to your own, so that your card becomes the kind of thing people will pin to the fridge in case of emergency.

19. Consider Special Finishes

Another way to impress people and create a memorable card is by investing in high-quality paper stock and special finishes. This will generally cost more (in some cases, significantly more) than standard printing, but it can be worth it to create a card that feels luxurious in people’s hands.

Here are some of the options available to you:

embossing
foil stamping
metallic inks
letterpress printing
die-cutting
using different materials like plastic, wood, etc.

Be sure to get clear on the cost of any of these options before proceeding, and keep in mind the need for band consistency that we covered earlier. If you can afford special finishes and they support your brand, they’re a great option to consider.

20. Check the Printer’s Requirements

You’ve seen some great business card examples in this article, but you also need to be aware of the practicalities of dealing with your printer and getting the finished product to look exactly how you want it to.

Your printer will generally want you to provide a file in a particular format, with bleeds of a certain width around the edge. While the templates we’ve covered here are set up to make the process easy, be aware that different printers around the world have their own requirements, so make sure you're giving them exactly what they need to get the job done right.

21. Check Your Work

This last one may sound obvious, but it’s an essential step. Even the most creative, unique business card design ideas will be worthless if there’s a typo in your URL that prevents people from finding you.

Professional and Creative Business Card 15

When you’ve finished your business card design, you’ll probably print hundreds or even thousands of copies, so take the extra time to go over everything carefully. Then step away, come back in a few hours, and check it all again with fresh eyes. Only then should you send it to the printers.

How to Make Professional Business Cards at Home Quickly (Online)

If you don't know your way around Photoshop or Illustrator not to worry, we've got the perfect solution for you: the Placeit Business Card Maker.

Business Card Templates for Carpenters and Handymen

The Business Card Maker is a simple and hassle-free tool that'll help you design your personal business cards for networking quickly and easily. To find out more about how to use this online tool check out the article below.

10 Quick Tips: How to Design Good Business Cards (With Guidelines for 2019)

Nona Blackman

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Make Your Own Business Cards Today

As you can see there are loads of professional business card design ideas and great templates available to help you make your own business cards. If you're proficient in Photoshop or Illustrator, create business cards using one of the amazing templates at Envato Elements or Envato Market. And if you're looking for a simpler and more intuitive business card design ideas, why not try the Placeit Business Card Maker?

I hope these business card design ideas have made you excited about all the possible ways you can make your own business cards.

Why not select your favourite template and create business cards today? We’d love to see which one you choose.